


Fitting Together

by girlnamedlance



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: M/M, Pre-Series, Running From The Cops, Shoplifting, generally rude department store behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 02:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8871529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlnamedlance/pseuds/girlnamedlance
Summary: Marv just drafted his first mate in shocking fashion, and now they need to figure out just how they fit together, or don't.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tajador](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tajador/gifts).



After an explosive kind of introduction, Joe and Marvelous had to learn their way around each other. The first step was to get Joe to look a little less like the fugitive that he was.

So, clad in some of Marv’s spare clothes, they hit a shopping avenue on some obscure backwater planet that the Zangyack didn’t seem to have found yet. There weren’t any Wanted posters here, anyway.

“Gokai Blue, huh?” Joe muttered to himself as he perused the selection. He hadn’t worn anything other than his armor and his issued sleeping gear in years. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t worn them. Even now he could still feel the ghost of the shoulder pads, and the way the clips that held the breastplate together made tension around his midsection. And his hand kept reaching to tug on the arm guard that was no longer attached to him. It never had stayed in place for long.

He had a whole new future ahead of him, with this man, and with this new power. He’d spent some time with his new Gokai Saber on the deck of the Galleon. It had a different kind of heft to it than his Zangyack-issued swords, and the shape of it was also very different, and as such had to be handled a different kind of way.

Much like Marvelous. He obviously didn’t want obedience. That wasn’t the kind of ship’s captain he was. Joe could make his own decisions. That wasn’t something he was used to. 

“Are you going to try it on, or are you trying to set it on fire?” Marvelous suddenly said.

As a reflex, he suddenly snapped his heels together and dropped the shirt he’d been holding. Marvelous only chuckled and went on his way. Joe sniffed in annoyance and picked it back up. Color was nice, he decided. Too much black and grey in his life up to now. The shirt as it was would probably fit, so he decided he didn’t need to try it on. 

Pants, on the other hand, were another story. They needed to be put through their paces. So he gathered up a dozen pairs and went off to the dressing room without a further word. This is how people lived outside of the Empire, after all.

Marv found a cool jacket and turned to find Joe. But the man was nowhere to be found. He looked all around the shop. He couldn’t see him. He wasn’t getting worried per se. He just wanted to know where he was, just because he wanted to. That was it.

He started checking the dressing rooms. Instead of knocking, he just started jiggling door latches. 

Joe didn’t really think when he reacted. As soon as he heard someone attempting to break into his dressing room, he yanked his door open and dragged the offending party in by the collar of his jacket. He slammed him up against the wall with a hand on his neck before he realized just who it was.

“Yo,” Marv said with a grin. He didn’t look alarmed by Joe’s reaction in the least. But Joe could feel Marv’s arteries pounding under his fingertips. After a beat, he let him go entirely and went to putting his pants back on without further comment. He scowled. He felt like an idiot. Marv had saved his goddamn life and here he was jumping at shadows like a fluffy rabbit.

“I found this,” Marv pressed on, as though nothing had happened. He pushed the jacket he was holding into Joe’s hands. Joe looked it over. That was a lot of zippers. But once he had his pants back on and fastened, he shrugged into it.

It wasn’t bad, really. It had big enough pockets inside for the Mobirates and a few Ranger Keys. He took a few stances and made a couple swipes, even in the small space made tighter by Marv’s invasion. He could move well enough in both these pants and the jacket.

“Not bad, right? Let’s go,” Marv finally said when Joe looked satisfied.

They left the dressing room together, leaving the rejects behind. Joe was busy tugging the tags off his new finds so he could wear them out after paying when something caught his attention. A pair of employees were looking between a couple sheets of paper and the pair of pirates. Paper in the distinct color used by the Zangyack Empire when they had fugitives they wanted found for a reward.

“We need to go,” Joe said simply.

“Yeah. Nice of them to give us this stuff for free,” Marv replied with that grin of his. Joe wondered if that attitude was going to catch up to him or not. It was the least he could do to prevent it.

They made for the door, only to be stopped by a pair of bruisers in fancy clothes. Some crime boss wanted to ingratiate himself to the Empire by capturing the notorious pirates themselves, Joe suspected. He knew the type. He’d been sent to off a few that got a little too ambitious.

Neither of them had weapons aside from the Ranger Keys, which were frankly overkill for this particular situation. All humans had the same weak spots, no matter how big they were.

And in this instance, it was those weaknesses he targeted. A kick to the solar plexus to send one stumbling, then spinning into another to the collar bone. On his way around, he grabbed an umbrella from a rack and brought it down on his would-be bounty hunter’s head. On impact it bent, but it still ensured the guy was dazed enough to give them time to book it for the Galleon. 

Joe glanced back to see Marv right at his heels, still grinning like he was having the time of his life. His new captain was a strange kind of man, that was for sure.

After running for a couple blocks, they were satisfied that they were no longer being followed. “Wait here,” Marv said, starting down a cross street. He left Joe standing in the street outside a bakery. After a moment, Joe remembered it wasn’t normal for non-military to just stand where they’d been left by a superior, and took a seat in one of the outdoor tables of the bakery. From his seat he had a good view up and down the street they’d just fled down, as well as into the window of the shop. There, the baker had just begun decorating one of what turned out to be a many-tiered cake. 

He’d never considered what went into the process before. From the initial thin rough covering of buttercream to piping the flowers and other intricate detail of the design in progress, he was thoroughly absorbed. He didn’t just watch the baker’s hands, he was absorbing what the woman did with her whole body. How she stood, the curl of her back as she bent over her work, one hand turning the cake on its stand occasionally as she went around its perimeter. Technique was the most important thing, after all. Without good technique, one could never expect a good result. 

“Cute, ain’t she?” Marv said suddenly. To his credit, Joe only startled like a normal person, and didn’t immediately attempt to throttle his captain again.

“Do you sneak up on everyone all the time?” Joe asked sourly. He looked up and down the street when he realized he hadn’t been keeping an eye out for any signs of pursuit.

“Only people not paying attention,” Marv answered. Okay, he had him there.

Joe huffed. “I was watching her technique,” Joe clarified. He hadn’t even really seen her face. He was too busy watching what she was doing. 

“You like cake, huh? I didn’t think they gave you guys anything more interesting than rations.”

“They didn’t,” Joe replied evenly. At the time, he figured that was all that was necessary. 

Marv dropped into a seat nearby and plunked a small, vaguely cylindrical bundle wrapped messily in brown paper in front of Joe. “Here. You’re my first mate.”

Joe looked sidelong at him through his bangs and took the package in his hands. It practically fell open in his hands for all the care that went into its wrapping. It was a leather cuff in bright blue, interwoven into itself and studded with brass hardware. 

Marv tugged upward on his jacket and shirt sleeves to show a matching one in red on his own arm. “See? We’re a crew.”

“I’m first mate of a crew consisting of two people?” Joe asked.

“There’s more keys. Three more like ours. And a couple hundred of the other ones. We just need to find people to use them.”

“According to who?” Joe asked. He didn’t want to start careening around the galaxy on a wild goose chase. 

“Getting them all unlocks the location of the Greatest Treasure in the Universe,” Marvelous continued, ignoring the question.

“And what’s the Greatest Treasure in the Universe?” Joe asked.

Marvelous leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “Dunno. But I want it. And I’m a pirate, so I’m going to take what I want. That means you too.”

Joe couldn’t help but smirk. He turned the bracelet around in his fingers and finally pushed up his own jacket sleeve to put it on. Marvelous grinned at him when he seemed to finally see it his way.


End file.
